


Just Like Old Times (As It Should Be)

by SleepyBoiAizawa



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, My own headcanons, Some angst?, idk man, this is post leverage the series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 12:31:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14105433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepyBoiAizawa/pseuds/SleepyBoiAizawa
Summary: A few years after the events of Leverage, the trio broke up. Now Alec attempts to con one of the (if not THE) richest people in the world by himself. How does he fare during the biggest con ever by himself? And is he truly alone?





	Just Like Old Times (As It Should Be)

**Author's Note:**

> This was a prompt given to me on Tumblr that I absolutely fuckin loved!!! (thanks to talkativelock for that btw) I may pick this up again, but I'm not making any promises as I'm up to my eardrums in college coursework, podcast editing and novel writing. That being said, I did want to make this a fullblown universe sorta thing with an explanation of why there was conflict and what happened afterwards. But based on the prompt I was given, this is the story that'll come first. Idk if, to update it, I should make another chapter or just a sequel/prequel fic for it. that's still up in the air. The jack Bethesda ark (if I make it an ark, at least) will probably stay here on this page though. Everything else will be written about elsewhere. There is influence from a series of fics called Awesome!Jakeverse on here which built an entire fanfic universe around a Jericho ship/ships. I may want to do the same basically down the road now that leverage is off netflix and I need more of it in my life. 
> 
> There are some actual names used to fictional characters. I do not know said real people, therefore this is not a true representation of them. The character Jack Bethesda is based on a real asshat who I'd rather not name directly because his salty petty ass WOULD come after some fanfic writer over a callout. Granted, said richest man in the world is an asshole and I wanted to see him get taken down by the leverage crew. Is that too much to ask?
> 
> Anyway this note is almost a fanfic in itself I'm sorry! Idk how much I actually needed to say! Enjoy the fic!

Hardison fixed his black tie and checked his teeth in the mirror of his camera phone. He was in an immaculate purple suit which he wore because he knew that it would draw attention. In a way, it was what he wanted. It wasn’t easy coming to terms with being on his own again but he was managing. He still had his contacts, and occasionally he would contact one of the other Leverage branches but most of the time he was on his own. Today was one of those times. He was about to attempt to con his toughest mark yet. He was doing it on behalf of a pained distribution center worker, who ended up being swamped in legal fees as well as other monetary and emotional costs for having collapsed of exhaustion at her job. She was literally being driven further into poverty by the company, and the man in charge has denied that any such thing was happening. This man was also one of, if not the, richest man in the world. So tackling this was tough. But on behalf of all the victims he had to execute this perfectly.

He walked up the steps to where the dinner party was housed. It was a large office building belonging to his current mark. This building was so huge that there were at least 4 different rooms dedicated to fancy ass dinner parties and whatnot. Hardison hated the concept, but knew that he had to follow along. He was stopped by two guards who each slowly reached for their weapons. He pretended not to notice and confidently smiled warmly at the third man who had a tablet in his hand with the guestlist. 

“Bonjour. Je m’appelle Lies Laridon.” he said, adding, in an almost perfect french accent “I should be on ze list, no?” The third man smiled back and flipped through the tablet. Hardison reached his hand into his pocket to keep his hand on the phone just in case that the file got updated in the space of time that he checked to make sure it was uploaded. Now that he was on his own, he found that every precaution was necessary. There was a beep and the man nodded at Hardison. He walked past slowly and confidently, taking note of the guards relaxing their grips on the guns. Hardison noticed their stance and other distinguishable features Eliot trained him to look for.

_Contractors,_ he thought as he kept walking. _Why would the man need this many hired guns that were ex military? Isn't this just a dinner party?_ For once he felt anxiety and almost regret at not having Eliot there to have his back. He didn’t know if he would see him again. Or Parker. Since they decided to close the doors to the main Leverage office a year and a half ago they stopped talking to each other. He kept an eye on them occasionally, just to make sure they were alright but he didn’t attempt to make contact because he didn’t want to ruin things somehow. Getting back into the moment, he grabbed a glass of champagne and nodded curtly at any and all passerbys that made eye contact with him. Some of the women giggled, some of the men smiled back. Overall it wasn’t an unpleasant experience, despite the fact that most, if not all of these people were corrupt in one way or another. He made small talk with some, talking about either business practices, or other things that were just the most mundane interactions he ever had with anyone. But Jean-Luc, the personality he made for himself, was as corrupt as they get. He had to be. Jack Bethesda, owner of the biggest companies ever, Monsoon, would not even pay you any mind if he didn’t think he could buy you somehow in order to make profit. Which is how Lies Laridon, Mayor of Diksmuide, Belgium came to be. Hardison had to pick a real person instead of making a persona because Bethesda had heavy CIA informants that would surely take note of any fake name claiming to have a position they’re not. Plus, he liked the irony of the name Lies being used as his alias.

Although it’s probably not pronounced that way, the brief thought came across his mind and he smirked. As he looked into space he felt someone bump into him, and he quickly snapped back into it, cursing himself for letting his mind wander. He didn’t have such luxuries anymore, especially not with such a high profile target. He checked his smartwatch, which was programmed to detect the strongest wireless signal in the room and kept moving toward the stairs, near which stood two more armed guards. Then he saw the man himself descend down the staircase. 

Jack Bethesda was bald, and just looked like a classic bond villain. He wore an immaculate gold suit, which was more expensive than everything Hardison owned combined, and he’s robbed the richest of the rich. It also made him look more and more like a bond villain. All he was missing was a white cat in his arms and an eyepatch and his look would be complete. As he descended, the man seemed to lock eyes with Hardison. He approached, with a big, warm smile that Hardison knew was false and spoke.  
“Mr. Laridon, how nice of you to join us! I’ve been wanting to talk to you about your cheese exporting, as well as… Well, y’know!” the man said, spreading his arms to come in for a hug. Chills ran down Hardison’s back. His instincts screamed to run. It was almost instinctive, he knew that he’d been made. It was pronounced further by the two guards behind him reaching for their weapons slowly. Hardison decided to play along while looking for an opening. 

“Ah yes, of course. I’d be glad to discuss… the other matter,” He smiled and walked into the hug, despite the fact that every fiber of his being was screaming to run. He wanted to keep appearances up though. He wanted to act like he wasn’t aware that he was exposed, much like Jack was acting like he wasn’t aware of Hardison’s position.

“So, are you alone? Or do you have your old crew with you?” whispered Jack into his ear, smirking, “Did you think we wouldn’t vet all our guests with extreme thoroughness? You may have deleted all data on the leverage crew but I took note early. Made some… Paper copies. You can thank Dubenich for tipping me off, actually.” 

He loosened his grip and retreated, tucking his hands in his pockets. He grinned again, an obviously evil grin that made Hardison shudder. 

“You have no way out of this one. Alone or not. You’re done. Uhh… It was… Hardyman, right?” He said, obviously trying to aggravate Hardison. 

“Not quite.” Hardison smiled, “Skywalker.” As he said this his smartwatch lit up and ran a few quick programs that he installed a little prior. The program overloaded all the electronic systems, causing the lights to turn off. He quickly took advantage of the situation and blended into the crowd. 

_I should abort,_ he thought, _But I can’t. This is my one chance at this._

Deciding to proceed, he moved purposefully but carefully toward another staircase that he cased out earlier amidst the chaos unfolding as guests screamed and scurried about. As he started up the staircase he heard a gunshot go off. He ducked instinctively and moved faster up the stairs. Another bullet whizzed past him. He dashed down a hallway as he heard footsteps follow him up the stairs. More shots rang out but they were aiming at air at that point. He ducked down another hallway and tried the first door. Locked. He abandoned the task and kept running, realizing that they would gain on him. As he rounded the next corner he screeched to a halt. There were 3 guards there, readily pointing their guns at him. He put his hands up reflexively and gave a coy smile.  
The other two guards caught up and trained their guns at him. 

“Take off your watch and drop it to the ground. And not a word.” Said one of the three guards directly in front of him, gesturing violently with his gun, “You press one button on that thing and you’re full of holes too. Go. NOW!” 

Hardison did as the guard told. There was no point anymore. He slowly unclasped his watch, being careful and slow to show that he wasn’t pressing any buttons. Then he held his hands up with the watch in his left hand. And a slight grin touched his lips. 

“What are you smilin’ for? DROP IT! NOW!!!” yelled the guard.

He nodded slowly, looking almost past the guards and dropped it. Then something the guards didn’t expect happened. Things moved so quickly, time seemed to almost freeze. From the one side, a man in red flannel started attacking the three guards facing Hardison. As Hardison turned to take on the two behind him, He found one was already tased in the neck by a gorgeous blonde woman with short hair. Two faces he thought he’d never see again. His grin grew and he swiftly punched the second guard, who was turning to face Parker with surprise and panic on his face, in the throat, followed promptly by a kick to the groin. Hardison may have had some training with Eliot, but he found that the simplest and quickest methods worked best. Hardison and Parker turned around as Eliot promptly headbutted the guard that was threatening Hardison earlier, knocking him clean out. He brushed his long, almost unkempt hair out of his eyes, causing Hardison to bite his lip. He almost forgot how much he loved that.  
Parker jump-tackled Hardison into one of her tightest hugs, almost knocking the wind out of Hardison. Although he found it hard to breathe, he craved this for so long. Eliot cleared his throat loudly, making Parker jump. She quickly gave Hardison a peck on the cheek and stepped back.

“Look, I wish I could say I’m happy that this reunion is happening, but under these circumstances that would be a lie.” Eliot said loudly. Sure enough, Hardison could hear the footsteps coming down the corridor. Parker nodded at Eliot and ran forward, probably with some mad extraction plan. Hardison followed suit, looking almost guiltily at Eliot. Eliot’s cold expression melted and he also wrapped his arms tightly around Hardison.

“That being said, it is nice to see you.” he whispered in his ear. Hardison felt tears start to well up in his eyes. He honestly expected none of this to happen, especially the way it was currently unfolding. He nodded at Eliot.

“Thank you.” he said, voice still guilt ridden. 

“Look, we all said some hurtful things we regret. But you’re one of the most important people in my life. That being said, if you don’t start running now I WILL kick your ass right now, so don’t test me.” Eliot laughed and took off running, grabbing Hardison’s hand and dragging him behind. It took Hardison all his stamina just to keep up and not get dragged down the hall. They ran to Parker, who was standing in an elevator shaft, readying two harnesses and putting finishing touches on hers. 

“So are we continuing with the plan?” Hardison asked, as he regrettably strapped on his harness. This was one aspect to Parker’s plans that he didn’t miss. 

“Not right now, Hardy. This just became an extraction,” Parker almost looked sad at the prospect. 

“You didn’t explain what you guys were doing here yet.” Hardison said as he gave his harness the final checkup making sure it wouldn’t snap. He still hated heights, despite the fact that at this moment he felt like he was the safest he has been in a year and a half.

“It turns out we all took separate clients of Bethesda,” half-laughed Eliot checking his own harness, “And in true Us fashion we all found the same opening and went for it. Some of us just went for simple servers and cooks, however.” Hardison’s face turned red. He wanted to be as flashy as possible to draw attention (and also make him inconspicuous) but he realized then that he bit off more than he could chew. 

“Me and Eliot ran into each other in the kitchen.” Parker stated nonchalantly as she gave it one final tug and then they all collectively lurched upwards at very high speed as Parker began to reel them upwards, towards the roof. Hardison felt his stomach drop to the balls of his feet, almost instantly nauseous as the speed that he hasn’t experienced in so long caught up with him. He let out an involuntary scream, as did Eliot. Parker let out an excited whoop, as she did almost every time they did this. She never really got tired of these things did she. As they reached the top floor, Parker and Eliot pried the doors open while Hardison gripped the rope for his life. The doors slowly opened and Parker grabbed Hardison’s hand and reeled him in. 

“Keep the harnesses on,” she said and kept running for the staircase that was close to the roof access, “We’ll need them.” 

“Parker, what the hell will we need them for? Parker? PARKER!!” Hardison yelled, afraid for his safety yet again. Images of what happened to people who jumped off roofs raced through his mind and he tried his best to shake them.

“We need to get out of here, obviously. And we need to tackle the Bethesda problem. But we need to do it together.” Parker again seemed to state things so plainly, as if nothing happened. She kicked out the door to the roof, the need for stealth being over, and ran to the roof. She fired a grappling hook at the roof of another building and fixed the end she was holding once she felt it go taut. 

She turned around and looked at them expectantly. 

“Do you trust me?” She asked, reaching out her hand.

Hardison nodded as he grabbed her hand, its warmth bringing him comfort. He felt Eliot’s hand wrap up in his. Next thing you know they drew close to each other, bringing their foreheads together. 

_Just like old times,_ thought Hardison, _Just as it should be._


End file.
